A wide variety of barbecue grill assemblies have been provided in the prior art for use either with particulate fuels such as charcoal briquettes or liquid fuel.
Many of these barbecue grill assemblies are mounted on wheels to make them portable and facilitate their movement from one location to another, often in outdoor areas of the home.
Such barbecue grill assemblies typically include a bowl-like base mounted on a suitable support such as a central pedestal or legs including wheels to make the unit portable as noted above. Where the barbecue unit is contemplated for use with charcoal briquettes, a cooking grill is normally mounted in the bowl above a fuel grill for receiving the briquettes.
The barbecue units commonly have an enclosure formed between the bowl and a dome-shaped lid with vents regulating the flow of air or oxygen through the interior to adjust the rate of burning of the briquettes.
Operation is further enhanced by providing accessories such as shelves for receiving food containers or cooking utensils. In addition, much of the prior art is directed toward arrangements for facilitating movement of the lid by a user in order to maintain the lid in an open position upon the bowl and allow the user to add food to the cooking grill, rotate food articles already on the grill, replace or add charcoal briquettes and the like.
Representative barbecue grill assemblies of the type referred to above have been disclosed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,611,915 issued Oct. 12, 1971 to Glaser; 3,688,758 issued Sept. 5, 1972 to Stephen, Jr.; 3,714,937 issued Feb. 6, 1973 to Linstead; 3,734,076 issued May 22, 1973 to Kiziol; 4,390,002 issued Jun. 28, 1983 to Daily, III; 4,453,530 issued Jun. 12, 1984 to Schlosser; and 4,523,574 issued Jun. 18, 1985 also to Schlosser. U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,613 issued Jan. 13, 1987 to Tucker, et al. discloses a barbecue grill with a lid support means comprising clips mounted on a support structure away from the grill. However, it appears necessary for a user to first lift the lid and then insert it into a supported position on the clips.
The examples noted above are merely representative of barbecue assemblies available in the prior art and generally corresponding to the above described features.
The variety of barbecue grill assemblies available in the prior art is indicative of the widespread use and popularity of such units particularly for home or family use. However, there has been found to remain a need for further improvements in the units, particularly for facilitating their use under a wide variety of conditions and to allow the user to employ individual skills or techniques in the preparation of various foods.